Guerrilla Marketing: Do You Have the Courage?

Guerrilla marketing is not a new trend but the ideas that develop as a result of opening up your mind and thinking outside-the-box can yield some creative marketing tactics.

Guerrilla marketing is an innovative, unconventional, low-cost marketing approach that can generate high visibility for a product or service. It’s about getting imaginative and developing strategies that make people stop in their tracks and take notice.

The term was first created by Blair Newman, an internet pioneer who once said in an interview in the San Francisco Chronicle that with the economy being so bad, businesses will need guerrilla marketing. Jay Conrad Levinson picked up the phrase for a book he had written; giving the credit to Blair Newman for the phrase. Levinson went on to write a series of marketing books on the subject; one simply called “Guerrilla Marketing” as well as 24 other business books.

Basically, the book outlines a 7 step marketing plan to implement guerrilla marketing and discusses the importance of being creative in coming up with ideas. Thinking outside-the-box is crucial for this type of marketing strategy but in doing so, it’s important to think it through so it doesn’t backfire.

This type of strategy is a great way for small businesses to gain attention with a limited budget. From street art and graffiti to outrageous artistic expressions to flash mobs; guerrilla marketing gets attention. For example, Coca Cola created a smiling campaign that involved going all over the world and simply smiling at strangers to see who would smile back. If the target smiled back, they received a free Coke or some other prize. Of course, The Coca Cola company has the budget to go all over the world but it’s a great example of how a simple campaign can be done in your local area (however, don’t copy Coca Cola’s idea).

We will be sharing more about Guerrilla Marketing in future issues. This is just a peek into the endless possibilities that can be created using out-of-the-box thinking, a small marketing budget and the courage to do something completely outrageous.

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